The Hotdog Hideaway

So last night Balkie, Clitty and I went out to Alfred's for some big tasty meat to celebrate with our friends' Lease and TJ who were in town in lieu of making our wedding in May. They are great people who live in Boston now and I love getting the chance to prattle on and on with them. We started the evening with happy hour in the sunny alley of the Irish Bank, and after a few double vodka sodas my tongue was nice and loose and the stories just sorta flowed out of me. Maybe the reason I like Lease and TJ so much is they are entertained by this personality trait of mine, not exhausted. By that time I was turning the almost comically huge doorknobs of Alfred's I was good and fired up for a massive piece a beef. Alfred's is Atkins paradise, and since Clitty talked me into going on this absurd diet of meat and fiber (which is frighteningly effective I must admit) this was our paradise. Amongst my steak loving friends (not as rare a breed in San Francisco as you might think) the scuttlebutt on Alfie's is they overcook their steaks, and I can sort of see that, but I had a 30oz 1-1/2" thick porterhouse which was perfectly medium rare near the bone- the "golden zone" as I put it. Near the outside perimeter it was a little overdone, but wherever the bands of fat were, nice pink meat lay beneath. To the shock and awe of my friends, I picked the bone clean. They had brought us our wedding present which they presented after coffee, and I have to say they know our tastes well. The poor guys had to drive to Santa Cruz that night, so we broke off with them around 9 or 10 to go meet up with Jersey and J Face who were harassing Weaves over at Citizen Thai. They are feeling lively and I think Weaves is trying not to seem to associated with them. It's a respectable establishment and she doesn't need us to go into palookaville at her bar. Still, as always, she is probably too generous with her attention to us. Love that girl. Of course when Clitty, Jersey, J Face and I get together trouble ensues, and this was no exception. All of the talk Clitty and I had to take it easy until the wedding was totally forgotten, and wow... is it 3 am already? Jersey and I were getting all deep and existential (par for the course during high buzz). I gotta watch myself with him as he doesn't work on Fridays. I always forget that. The result is I don't do a lot of work on Fridays myself. Speaking of which...

It's hard to work when there is a day game going on. My general feeling is to just cut work and bring the laptop to the park. In these days of Blackberries and Wifi, why the heck do I need to be in the office? I am just going to be listening to the game on the radio anyway. Clitty and I cut work last Thursday to catch the home opener and it was the best decision we made all week. Granted, we were both on a tear which started with our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties from the weekend before, so I can hardly say we had made a lot of smart decisions so far that week. Staying out until 5 am on a weeknight is a prime example of "it seemed like a good idea at the time". Maybe it is escapism from wedding planning, maybe it was us not wanting the weekend to end, but either way I make no apologies for spending the only sunny afternoon last week seeing the G's take their first win from the slackjaw Braves. But yesterday I was obliged to be in the office and had to settle for Jon Miller's description of Morris pitching great curve balls and getting his K on.

So right now it is Friday and I am "working from home" and I have the second game of yesterday's double header on the TiVo and right now it is the top of the 7th. I am not impressed. Cain pitched well, in spite of giving a two run homer to Berkman, but amazingly struck his way out of a bunch of tight spots, so he should feel no shame. That kid has a bright future, and a great first name to match! But in spite of keeping the big Astro bats (mostly) at bay, there is that painfully familiar sight of more base runners stranded than the cast of Lost. It just kills me to see that when there is other so much great hitting. And now Kevin Chokerea walking runners home. And hey! Fillipe is sending Walker to the bullpen! This is not going to end well.